Last night I was playing a bunch of airs on my Chieftain NR low D. I really love it, and each time I play it, I love it even more. Maybe I’m just getting better, but every time I pick it up it feels like a new whistle. It really seems magical, and each tune is so special that it feels like I’m hearing it for the first time, instead of the hundredth. Do you have whistles like this?
Yes, every one of them. And I think it’s me - not them!
Best, John
I agree! 
Maybe you aren’t like this, but on some whistles, every time I play them, they seem worse because I get better playing on a good whistle, and I feel that when I play a lesser quality whistle, it holds me back.
I also have off days when I play most whistles, but I can’t ever remember having an off day with the Chieftain.
My generation Eb…I can’t believe how amazing it is. It has everything I want in a whistle.
I agree with this, but most often I agree with the posters who said ‘all of them - it’s me’.
I have weeded out a very few for being just too off, but mostly I’ve decided to hang onto ones I origianlly thought I might not keep. As I improve, I like almost all of them better and better.
edited to correct an agregious error, LOL!
I like the contrast of playing different whistles. I think I’ll hang on to the ones that aren’t my favorite, just so I can come home to the most wonderful ones.
The one that truly leaps to meet my ear’s expectations is my Copeland Bb.
My Copeland D is really satisfying too. It’s harder to play, harder than my Burke or Overton. But every time I pick it up after one of the others, I love its sound more.
Jennie
Danner, I understand what you mean, but I have to disagree slightly. If you’re anything like me, it’s the not the whistle that is holding you back. It’s lack of skill and the fact that you are more intimately familiar with the one that you’ve been playing more often.
I love my Burke, and would readily recommend them to any new whistler looking to purchase their first “high-end” whistle. When I’m playing tunes just for the pure pleasure of playing, it’s usually my whistle of choice. However, over the past few months I’ve noticed that the challenges presented by my Feadog and my MellowGen (Gen C head on Mellow D tube) have helped me to improve my breath control and technique.
I would say that it’s not a case of the cheapies holding you back, but that the high-end is helping to “lower the bar” so you sound better. That’s not meant as a dig at you. It’s just an observation from my own personal experience. The quality of my Burke makes it less challenging to play, which makes me sound better, and is why I choose to play it more often. However, the temperamental nature of my cheapies, demands a higher level of perfection that forces me to improve as a player.
All of them. Except the Doolin two-piece.
Entropy wrote:
the temperamental nature of my cheapies, demands a higher level of perfection that forces me to improve as a player.
I had never really thought about that before, but you are probably right. Maybe I need to pick up my Feadog for awhile, and see if it helps me to improve even more. Thanks!
Carolyn
I remember being taught long ago that learning to play well on an inferior instrument will make you all the more worthy of a good one if and when you get it.
I hadn’t really thought about it very often since, but I think I really do understand that.
Some of the best musicians started out so determined to play that they fought and conquered the limits of a far less than ideal instrument. And that perseverence and ability to compensate proved a tremendous boost.
Just as one example, Libba Cotten taught herself to play her brother’s guitar, hiding under the bed, holding it backward. No lessons, no tuning, no nothin’ but the urge to play. That didn’t hinder her joy in the music, and certainly didn’t hinder her ability to play and write. It just made her do it differently than most. Not a bad thing alltogether.
Besides, look how many great whistlers started out with, and some still do play the “cheapos”, like Generation.
Sometimes I think we put too much emphasis on the “perfection” and forget the real perfection, which is just playing and sharing what we have. (yeah, I know that’s a bit corney and cheesey. Want a fork?" 
)
I’d better get the poor old horse out for another flogging: what you say assumes the cheaper whistles are inferior ones. I don’t think they are.
Recordings made using them are there to prove it. Honestly.
Every time I break out the Davy Spillane Low D, it seems to improve! 
Don’t beat that horse… I’m already contrite.
I can see why you think that, but that was not what I meant. I meant that the assumption is that “cheapos” (that’s why I put it in quotes) are inferior, but the obvious fact is that those who play well still play them, so it is clearly not a case of them being inferior. Sometimes I use too many words and still don’t get my real point across.
edited to correct spelling, and to add:
Thanks for calling me on that.
You’re welcome, it’s my pet peeve obviously. You’d know what I mean if you had heard the same recordings I have been listening to the past few days. 
Peter, I totally agree… it is the musician far more than the instrument. A great instrument in the hands of one who isn’t well versed in playing, can sound awful, and a seemingly “inferior” instrument can be made to sound wonderful in hands that know how to coax music from it. Of course, there are people who can get music out of rocks… I, unfortunately, am not one of them.
I look forward to hearing those recordings.
I’ve also considered that playing on worse whistles helps you get better. (That’s why I still have my Gen Bb that requires a carefully placed piece of scotch tape on the fipple to make it playable.) I’m really talking more about whistles that just are not responsive enough. On some of those, there’s really nothing that you can do to make them play correctly. (For instance- Some of the scale on that Gen Bb is beautiful, but some notes are almost impossible.)
Ok, this may seem a strange answer - and it’s not in the realm of “magical” as you say.
But for plain old noodling around, my Water Weasel has gone from dandy, to a hoot!, to a kick in the pants, to a barrel of monkeys.
I like the rest of the litter too. And that old dawg Shaw keeps nudging his nose into my hand too. 
Maybe I’ll have to spend a few more bucks for “magical” some day. 